More Information

2010 National Book Award Winner,
Nonfiction

Patti
Smith

Just Kids

Meehan Crist: Just Kids chronicles your lifelong
friendship and creative partnership with Robert Mapplethorpe,
who died of AIDS in 1989. What made you decide to write
this book, now?

Patti
Smith: Robert asked me to write our story before
his death on March 9, 1989. My sorrow was such that
I couldn’t immediately embark upon it, though
I wrote a suite of prose poems called “The Coral
Sea” for him. In time I wrote outlines and small
sections, but in the wake of my attempts I suffered
much loss, including the deaths of my husband and brother.
As a widow with two children I could not devote myself
to it and was obliged to lay it aside. In the last few
years I began again. So, truthfully, I don’t feel
as if I wrote it now, but finished it now.

MC: How did you prepare
for writing this book? Did you go back through old letters
or diaries, listen to particular songs? How did you
evoke, in your mind, this period of your life in order
to be able to write about it?

PS: The book encompasses our youth, which no one
knew as well as us, so I relied on our shared memories
and my personal archive. I first prepared by going through
our story in my mind, letting it flow like a movie.
I ran it over and over until I could see us and hear
us speak. I wrote outlines, timelines, and I consulted
my diaries, journals, and our letters. I went to Brooklyn
where we met, fell in love and lived. Wherever I could
find him. To Coney Island, Pearl Paint, Tompkins Square
Park, and the hallways of the Chelsea Hotel. I went
everywhere I could find him, though I do feel he is
always with me, and if I want to find him I can look
within myself.

MC: The writing in
this book has been compared stylistically to some of
your song lyrics. How do you see the relationship between
your experience writing lyrics, or poetry, and your
experience with writing Just Kids?

PS: I can’t say how the book is similar in
style to my lyrics, I’ve never thought about that,
but the book is directed to the reader, as a song to
the listener. In both cases the task is to be as communicative
as possible. I can only say I was conscious of that
responsibility, just as I am when writing a song.

MC: Did you look to
other books as models for Just Kids? Did other
artists or art forms influence your work on this book?

PS:
I had no specific model in writing Just
Kids, but I wanted, though non-fiction, for it
to read as a story. In writing in first person I was
inspired by autobiographical literature in first person,
such as The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Genet’s
The Thief’s Journal.

A book is precious and every
aspect is important, both in content and aesthetically.
I studied how books are designed, from paper to font.
In working with the book designer I chose to integrate
the visual material within the text as in Nadja
by Andre Breton or Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald.

MC: Is there one story
in the book that seemed particularly important for you
to tell?

PS: The most important task was to give Robert to
the reader. His work stands on its own, but there is
little accurate documentation about what he was like
and how he evolved as a young man. Each facet of the
story was essential in creating a holistic portrait
of him, which I hope I have done.

MC: What is one moment
from the process of working on this book that you’ll
never forget?

PS: The point when I realized I was going to make
it and that I would not fail to keep my promise to write
it. The moment I wrote the last word will always stay
with me. I had finished the book, but in rereading I
noticed a redundant phrase. When I crossed out the word
relationship and replaced it, I realized that the last
word I wrote was love.

MC: Was there any discovery
you made in the course of writing this book that provided
a key to understanding Robert Mapplethorpe’s life,
or your relationship to him? If so, how did this discovery
help shape the book?

PS:
I wasn’t trying to discover, but to articulate
what I know. The story I carried in me for four decades.
I wasn’t completely sure I could do it, but I
discovered in the end I could. My desire was to write
the truth but tell it as a story, like a modern fairy
tale.

MC: As you shaped your
past experiences into a nonfiction narrative, did writing
this book change your sense of him, of yourself, or
of your relationship?

PS: Rather, it validated it. I have recently reread
the book and am happy that even with any flaws it may
have, it gives an authentic sense of us and our world.
Gave it form. Like a simple but precious stone I could
set in someone’s hand. I know who we were and
I am happy that we can be found in its pages.

MC: What do you most
wish that people better understood about Robert Mapplethorpe?

PS: That he was kind, protective, mischievous, and
he liked to laugh. That he always retained a confidence
in his vision and had a strong work ethic. That he wasn’t
possessive about his confidence and was generous in
investing it in others.

MC: We live at an odd
political moment for art and artists in this country,
a time when arts funding—both in schools and for
working artists—is dwindling, while, at the same
time, graduate programs in the arts are proliferating.
How do you see the role of the artist/writer changing
in our society?

PS: This is truly the era that William Blake anticipated.
He believed all people are capable to animate their
creative force. Despite any lack of funding, our present
technology has democratized creativity. I also believe
that some have a higher calling and will forever give
us high art, the enduring and inspirational stepping-stones
to God.

Meehan Crist
is reviews editor at The Believer. She holds
an MFA from
Columbia University, and her work has recently appeared
in publications such
as The Believer, Lapham's Quarterly, and the
Los Angeles Times. Her nonfiction book, Everything
After, is forthcoming from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.